They live less than 40km from Cape Town, but residents of Philadelphia say health services in the two areas are worlds apart.
|||Cape Town - They live less than 40km from Cape Town, but residents of Philadelphia say health services here are worlds apart from those provided in the city.
Residents of Meulenhof just outside Philadelphia say they feel “forgotten” and describe their health services as “almost non-existent”.
They have no clinic of their own, so some resort to hiring private transport at a cost of up R250 just to go to the nearest clinic.
Residents claimed that even though they were meant to have mobile clinic services every fortnight, this service was often unavailable. The clinic arrived this week for the first time in two months.
While the provincial Department of Health wouldn’t confirm the problems, its spokeswoman Faiza Steyn said officials would soon visit Philadelphia to find an agreeable solution.
The residents’ nearest clinics are the Durbanville Clinic, 24km away, and the Wesfleur Hospital, 20km away in Atlantis.
Louisa Afrikaner, a community worker, said residents either had to catch a 6am taxi to the Durbanville Clinic or hire private transport at anything between R150 and R250. There was no taxi to Atlantis and people had to hitchhike.
Most people chose to visit the distance clinics as the mobile service was unreliable. “It’s either broken or there’s no driver,” said Afrikaner. “Even when it comes nurses are always in a rush… they are never here for more than two hours. It’s like they don’t have interest in what they do.”
Lena Matroos, mother of two-month-old Wayline, depends on the mobile clinic. But next week she must go to Durbanville as Wayline needs a vaccination.
Matroos complained about a lack of shelter at the mobile clinic, saying in winter mothers with small children had to stand in the queue outside regardless of the weather.
“The mobile clinic just parks under a tree on the side of the road,” she said. “On rainy days we sit in people’s homes nearby and wait our turn. It really is a struggle getting health services here. It’s like we are forgotten.”
For mental health patient Angeline van der Westhuizen accessing health services can be humiliating when she needs to get her medication and her monthly injections at the side of the road. She has resorted to having her injection in her arm to avoid stripping in public.
“The psychiatric nurse parks her car on the pavement and calls us to get our medication in the car.
“I’m supposed to alternate the injections, arm and thigh, but I can’t have it in my thigh as I would have to strip in public. I’ve asked her to rather give me my medicines at home, but she refused.”
Steyn said there were no plans to build a clinic in the area as Philadelphia fell under Durbanville, which had a 24-hour facility - the Kraaifontein Community Health Centre.
Steyn said a decision to extend the chronic dispensing unit services to Philadelphia had been taken two years ago after residents complained about long queues at Durbanville Clinic.
She said the challenges concerning the mobile unit would be attended to without delay.
sipokazi.fokazi@inl.co.za
Cape Argus